Three events for DCCI Irish Design Week taking place in Leitrim

On November 13-17, three events will take place in Leitrim for DCCI Irish Design Week 2023. The events are themed around contemporary technologies and myth, and how technology can be used to help tell stories in contemporary art. Irish Design Week is a national programme of events about art, design and craft. This year’s theme “Is folklore the future?” explores the Irish tradition of oral history – using folklore to communicate dense and complicated themes.

The events are organized by Creative Heartlands in conjunction with the Leitrim Design House. From Monday the 13 to Wednesday the 15 November, Leitrim Sculpture Centre and Fab Lab Maker Hub are running a 3-day workshop on 3D resin printing for metal casting. On Thursday the 16th, local Manorhamilton collective ^ will host Dutch art collective varia for a one-day workshop in building servers for use in art projects. And then on Friday 17 at 5pm, an artist meet-up event will take place. The final event will include a panel between artist Dr. El Putnam and writer Mike McCormack, who collaborate on art and storytelling projects, chaired by Dr. Paul O'Neill of Dublin Art and Technology Association (DATA). Manorhamilton collective ^ will also present recent work on their project Waking the Land, and Creative Heartlands will discuss upcoming events and opportunities. This will be followed by a networking event with local artists, where refreshments will be served. All events are free but booking is required.

Stories in Machines (November 17, The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon, 5pm-8pm): The Dock will host a series of events on Friday the 17. This includes a panel discussion between collaborators El Putnam and Mike McCormack. Dr. Putnam is an artist-philosopher working in performance art, video, sound, and digital media, and is Assistant Professor in Digital Media at Maynooth University. Mike McCormack is a renowned writer from Co. Mayo who has just published his fourth novel, This Plague of Souls and gained much recognition for his single-sentence novel Solar Bones. They will discuss storytelling with technology, chaired by Paul O'Neill, artist and co-head of DATA. The collective ^ from Manorhamilton will also speak on the night about their work on the overlap between folklore, art, landscape and technology. And Creative Heartlands will give an overview of current work, all followed by a networking event where local artists, designers, filmmakers, writers and others are welcome to attend. Free, early booking advised.

Artist-led server networks (November 16, Manorhamilton, 10am-3pm): The collective varia (Rotterdam) run projects on experimental publishing, considering how we use communication technologies today. As part of their practice, they set up and run servers for artists based on principles of sharing, collectivity and community. Where many of our web technologies are supported by large commercial servers owned by Google or Amazon, artist-led servers lead to new possibilities in how we host websites, video calls and other online media without reliance on these companies. This workshop will explore the basics of establishing an artist-led network. Free, early booking advised.

The 3D printing for metal casting event is currently booked out but interested parties can contact Fab Lab Maker Hub for future workshops and can sign up to Creative Heartlands email and social media for latest announcements. Creative Heartlands and Leitrim Design House developed the programme through Manorhamilton-based visual artist and organiser Shane Finan The events are supported by Creative Heartlands, Leitrim Design House, Enterprise Ireland and the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland.

Booking can be made at the following links:

Artist-led Server Networks: https://www.dcci.ie/events/artist-led-server-networks/

Stories in Machines: https://www.dcci.ie/events/myth-and-irish-techno-cosmology/

Creative Heartlands Project can be followed at https://www.creativeheartlands.com/

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